Techniques and Dao

Chapter 156 Little Boy
The door to the cabin is locked!
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands!" Mie Ying chanted an incantation, striking the door with his palm, but it remained unmoved. He exclaimed in surprise, "It's been sealed by an incantation—no, it should be said, by your magic!"

Hua Sheng gripped the golden cudgel in his hand and said warily, "I just realized why they went to such lengths. They sent Jian alone to knock on the door just now to be wary of this wooden house. Now, the designer of this trap has finally aligned our steps!"

He pointed to the wooden walls around him and said, "The purpose is to bring the three of us, who were originally separated, into the wooden house at the same time!"

Jane said gravely, "It seems we've already been locked up in this cell..."

Before she could even utter the word "cage," Jane suddenly seemed unsteady on her feet, stumbled back a few steps, and collapsed to the ground, fainting.

Hua Sheng saw that things were not going well, so he swung his golden cudgel to smash the window, but then he felt a sudden dizziness.

"Oh no! There's something... a mind-altering substance in the air of this room..."

He used his golden cudgel to support himself on the ground, but his vision grew darker and darker, and he suddenly lost all strength in his hands and feet.

In the instant he fell, he saw Mie Ying's body also sway forward, then turn green-haired. The second sister, with green hair, also lost her balance. Then, in succession, the third sister turned red-haired, the sixth sister with straight black hair, and the ninth sister with glasses, all appearing dizzy. Finally, the fifth sister turned pink-haired again, standing there frozen, hugging a teddy bear.

Seeing Hua Sheng and Jian fall to the ground, Mie Ying Xiao Wu stamped his feet and shouted anxiously, "What happened to you two? Help! Someone help me!"

"Xiao Wu...run!"

Hua Sheng used his last bit of strength to say those words, but he completely forgot that Xiao Wu, who knew almost no magic, could possibly escape.

Hua Sheng fell into darkness and lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time had passed since his consciousness faded, he vaguely regained his senses. But he wasn't fully awake; the only thing that told him he was still alive was the splitting headache he was experiencing.

In his shallow consciousness, he felt that his body was extremely heavy and painful. However, what worried him was not the pain, but the strange heaviness.

Because it feels both familiar and strange.

Since studying immortal arts at the Shengping Ning Academy, Hua Sheng's body seems to have become increasingly light. Even without using immortal spells, scaling walls and leaping across rooftops is not a problem for her.

But at that moment he felt his body become heavy again.

Hua Sheng hadn't felt anything like this in a long time; his body felt so heavy that it reminded him of the "St. Pingning Hospital" that haunted his nightmares.

This heaviness is far more terrifying than pain.

Colorful hallucinations began to appear before my eyes in the darkness, and that black light began to erode my consciousness. Or perhaps it was withdrawing from my consciousness altogether.

Hanamoto tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

The body cannot move.

Hua Sheng suddenly found himself tied to a stool, his hands and feet bound with rope, and his mouth taped shut.

His heart was pounding, and he didn't know why he was so terrified. He had been through many life-or-death situations before, and he should have been calm now.

But he couldn't stop his heart from pounding. It was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to leap out of his throat or burst out of his chest.

Hua Sheng's gaze sharpened, and in her bewildered vision, a strange man wearing a white mask appeared out of nowhere.

He had never seen this man before, and now the man was pacing back and forth in front of him.

Hana looked around with her aching neck and realized she was still in the wooden house.

There was a floor-to-ceiling glass mirror next to me, reflecting my own image.

When Hanamori saw her reflection in the mirror, she was suddenly terrified.

In a flash, he looked at his reflection in the mirror and realized he was a child under ten years old!

The boy's still-childish face was covered with bruises from being hit, and a hemp rope was around his neck with a purplish-red mark.

Those bloodstains must have been caused by this rope.

It appears the boy had been strangled unconscious and has only just woken up.

Hua Sheng could see the fear in the child's eyes and his face was wet with tears.

He didn't know what had happened. He had clearly been under some kind of spell and passed out, so why had his consciousness been transferred to the body of a helpless child?
He tried desperately to squeeze out some sound from his throat, but only managed a weak, hoarse whimper.

Just then, the wooden door to the room was pushed open. A woman wearing a black mask walked into the room.

The woman in the black mask said, "That man couldn't hold out and confessed. The combination to this safe is 99, 12, and 48. Go and try it!"

The man in the white mask's eyes lit up with elation upon hearing this, and he immediately walked to a corner of the room. Hua Sheng saw that the wooden planks on the wall in that corner had just been pried open, and sawdust was scattered all over the floor. Hidden behind the planks was an old-fashioned dark green safe.

The old-fashioned safe wasn't large, and it seemed to have been deliberately stored there for some time, which is why it was boarded up on the outside.

"99, 12, 48..."

The man in the white mask muttered in a hoarse voice as he turned the safe's dial lock.

With a click, the safe's lock was opened.

"The password is correct! It's open!" The man in the white mask was overjoyed, almost dancing with excitement, as if he had won the lottery.

The woman in the black mask said coldly, "His wife, children, and even his own life are in someone else's hands, so of course he wouldn't dare to lie."

With a clanging sound of metal scraping against metal, the heavy door of the safe was opened.

It was filled with thick files, like stacks of documents.

The man in the white mask brought out all the documents. Hua Sheng saw that the documents included not only scattered papers, but also thick black hardcover notebooks, a hard drive, and several old-fashioned CDs.

The man in the white mask was about to flip through the pages when the woman in the black mask stopped him, saying, "Don't look! The boss might kill you! You know, the boss..."

"I just wanted to make sure we didn't take the wrong documents!"

"Take them all back!" The woman in the black mask said, pulling a large duffel bag from the overflowing wardrobe next to her and tossing it to the man.

The man deftly unzipped the safe and threw everything inside until it was completely empty.

"We've got what we wanted, what's next?"

The woman said, "Let's go!"

The two then quickly walked out of the room carrying their luggage.

Seeing the two walk away without looking back, Hua Sheng breathed a sigh of relief. He began to try to break free so he could find out what had happened.

At that moment, he didn't expect the woman in the black mask to step back, and the man followed closely behind her.

Hua Shengben's heart, which had been pounding wildly, suddenly seemed to stop beating. He was so nervous that his blood ran cold and his face turned deathly pale.

The woman walked up to him and squatted down.

A strong sense of unease washed over Hanamori! He stared at the black mask in front of him, his body trembling uncontrollably.

The eyes behind the black mask showed no emotion. She stared at Hua Sheng and slowly said:

"Little friend, do you want to live? Then you must..."

Just then, the scene before Hanamori's eyes was like torn pieces of paper, scattered everywhere.

A sharp pain shot through his head, as if Hua Sheng had been hit on the back of the head with a stick—no, as if a bomb had exploded inside his brain, shattering his entire skull.

With a hazy consciousness, Hanamori lowered her head and began to mutter to herself:
"Dad...Mom..."

Regarding the recurring number "991248" (九九一二四八):

First of all, the first two are both "9". Regardless of East or West, "9" represents mystery, supreme power and infinity.

Nine (representing the nine-character mantra: Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Qian, Xing)
Nine (representing the nine stars of the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper originally consisted of seven stars plus two auxiliary stars, known as the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper. Later, two of these stars gradually disappeared, resulting in "seven visible and two hidden").
One (Tai Yi)

Two (the two polarities)

The Four (also known as the Four Symbols or the Four Emperors, who are the four revered deities in Taoism who assist the Three Pure Ones and the Jade Emperor).
Eight (the Eight Trigrams; also alludes to the complicated relationship between Hua Sheng and the Eight Immortals).
一共六位数，所有数字相加为33，3+3是6，暗指南斗六星。而“6”反过来也是“9”。

The numbers "zero," "three," "five," and "seven" are absent from the six numbers listed. These four numbers are precisely the most important numbers in Taoism.
Zero (in a sense, representing "the Way")
The Three Realms (Heaven, Earth, and Humanity)

The Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water)

The Seven Stars (a very important number. The Big Dipper, which is highly valued by contemporary Taoists. For example, the Seven Star Steps, the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, and the Seven Sages of Jianjing).
Implies:

1. The absence of "three" and "five" signifies "transcending the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements." (The other two are Sun Wukong and Laozi. Sun Wukong lent Hua Sheng the Golden Cudgel, and Laozi is the grandfather of his best friend. Both are key figures.)
2. The absence of zero and seven signifies that although Hua Sheng learned the Taoist techniques of "Tai Chi generating Yin and Yang, Four Symbols, and Eight Trigrams," she ultimately did not grasp the core of the "Tao." Instead, she acted in the opposite way. (Future plot development)

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(End of this chapter)